Department of Homeland
Security
Daily Open Source
Infrastructure Report
for 3 March 2009
Current Nationwide
Threat Level is
For info click here
http://www.dhs.gov/

According to Tulsa World, it took more than 60 firefighters about two hours to control a
fire Saturday at a fertilizer blending and bagging business at Oklahoma’s Port of Catoosa.
The buildings contained several tons of ammonium nitrate and nitrogen in bulk. (See item
5)

WPXI 11 Pittsburgh reports that a Pennsylvania company that monitors peer-to-peer filesharing networks found engineering and communications information about the U.S.
President’s helicopter, Marine One, at an IP address in Tehran, Iran. (See item 26)
DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report Fast Jump
Production Industries: Energy; Chemical; Nuclear Reactors, Materials and Waste;
Defense Industrial Base; Dams
Service Industries: Banking and Finance; Transportation; Postal and Shipping;
Information Technology; Communications; Commercial Facilities
Sustenance and Health: Agriculture and Food; Water; Public Health and Healthcare
Federal and State: Government Facilities; Emergency Services; National Monuments and
Icons
Energy Sector
Current Electricity Sector Threat Alert Levels: Physical: ELEVATED,
Cyber: ELEVATED
Scale: LOW, GUARDED, ELEVATED, HIGH, SEVERE [Source: ISAC for the Electricity Sector (ES−ISAC) −
[http://www.esisac.com]
1. March 2, Vanguard – (International) Nigeria: Oil thieves blow up Shell pipeline.
Suspected gangsters, reportedly working for some oil bunkers, whose barges containing
stolen crude oil were seized by the Nigerian Joint Task Force (JTF) on the Niger-Delta
in the past two months in Delta State, on March 1 blew up the Escravos crude oil
pipeline. The oil pipeline is believed to be operated by the Shell Petroleum Development
Company (SPDC), which has reportedly shut down its North Bank and South Bank
operations, including the crude oil line to the Forcados Terminal. Details of the bombing
were still hazy as the coordinator of the joint media campaign center of JTF told
Vanguard that nothing like that happened. Also an official of SPDC contacted on phone
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said he was not aware of the attack. However, an SPDC media adviser and spokesman
told Vanguard when contacted, “We are investigating reports of a possible incident on
one of our pipelines in Western operations, and cannot comment just yet.” But a security
source told Vanguard that the Delta Waterways and Security Committee has swung into
action by dispatching officials to the area to find out what happened. Information
gathered by Vanguard indicated that the oil thieves recruited the gangsters to bomb the
crude oil pipeline in fulfillment of their earlier threat to destroy oil facilities if their
barges impounded by the task force were not released.
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200903020174.html
See Also: http://en.afrik.com/article15366.html
2. March 2, Associated Press – (Georgia) Utilities say thousands of customers without
power. Georgia Power says some of it customers were still without power after a
Sunday snow storm. Most of the outages were concentrated around metro Atlanta and
Athens areas. A Georgia Power spokeswoman, said crews restored electricity to about
half of the 57,000 customers who were cut off the evening of March 1. An employee of
Georgia Electrical Membership Corp. said approximately 34,000 of its customers were
without electricity early March 2. Utility officials said trees falling on power lines were
the biggest problem and crews hope to have electricity restored by the evening of March
2.
Source: http://www.wtvm.com/Global/story.asp?S=9928433
3. March 1, Reuters – (Texas) Valero takes Port Arthur refinery crude unit offline.
Valero Energy Corp took a crude unit out of production at its 325,000 barrel-per-daytotal-throughput Port Arthur, Texas, refinery after a February 27 evening fire in a heat
exchanger, a company spokesman said. No injuries were reported due to the blaze, said
a Valero spokesman. The unit was placed on circulation, meaning it has not been
shutdown, but continues to circulate feedstock and can be quickly returned to service.
The production rate on the refinery’s second crude unit has been raised to maximum and
the rest of the refinery was operating as planned, the spokesman said.
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssEnergyNews/idUSN0133041920090301
4. February 27, Weatherford Democrat – (Texas) LPG pipeline found leaking near
Brock. A contract right-of-way inspector working for Chevron said he smelled gas at
approximately 11 a.m. Thursday while performing a routine inspection at the Bridgeport
liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) lateral line check facility in southwest Parker County,
Texas. He said he discovered a patch of moist dirt a short time later with a small ring of
ice at its center. He said he notified his superiors immediately. A representative from
Texas Railroad Commission was dispatched to the facility. Volunteers from
Brock/Dennis and Millsap fire departments were also at the scene. Chevron
representatives shut in the leak, which was coming from a shallow, 6-inch pipeline,
according to a senior corrosion specialist from Chevron Pipe Line Company’s Brock
facility. There was no fire or evacuation reported. The specialist said nitrogen will likely
be used to force remaining LPG from the damaged line. A statement from Chevron said
the cause of the incident is not known and is under investigation. According to the
company, all appropriate federal, state, and local emergency agencies were notified.
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Source: http://www.weatherforddemocrat.com/local/local_story_058175212.html
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Chemical Industry Sector
5. February 28, Tulsa World – (Oklahoma) Fire controlled at Port of Catoosa fertilizer
business. It took more than 60 firefighters about two hours to control a Saturday
afternoon fire at a fertilizer blending and bagging business at the Port of Catoosa. A
captain of the Tulsa Fire Department (TFD) said at 5:40 p.m. Saturday that the situation
had been controlled at Agri-Nutrients. The fire evidently started sometime after 3 p.m.
and was first reported to TFD at 3:23 p.m. by Port of Catoosa security. Crews found
heavy fire and smoke coming from a structure on the south side of the facility. The fire
rapidly spread to other buildings on the property and eventually consumed the entire
complex. The captain said representatives from Tulsa, Catoosa, and Rogers County were
among those on hand. The buildings contained several tons of ammonium nitrate and
nitrogen in bulk. The risk of dealing with these hazardous materials caused firefighters
to take a defensive approach to the “fire attack,” the captain said. TFD HazMat
personnel advised that the best course of action was to allow the facility to burn and thus
not risk personnel safety. Fire crews also faced a collapse hazard on the property, TFD
said. Two mixing towers were weakened by fire and were at risk for collapse.
Fortunately, strong northerly winds carried the smoke away from the fire and firefighters
and assisted in keeping the fire from creating a hazard to downwind residents. The cause
of the fire and the dollar amount of the damage were not known as of Saturday evening.
HazMat teams were being assisted late Saturday by the Coast Guard to monitor the
runoff from the fire and determine if there will be any environmental impact to the Port
waterway or nearby wildlife. The facility also contained close to 400 gallons of
herbicide stored in drums, according to TFD.
Source:
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=298&articleid=20090228_319_
0_Crewsw227541
6. February 28, Charleston Gazette – (West Virginia) EPA penalizes Bayer. Federal
regulators have finalized a deal in which Bayer CropScience will pay $112,500 in fines
to resolve wide-ranging environmental and safety violations at the company’s Institute
plant. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials announced the settlement
one day after another federal agency, the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration, fined Bayer $143,000 for the August explosion that killed two workers.
Violations covered in the EPA settlement were not related to the explosion. They were
uncovered during EPA inspections in 2001, but the proposed settlement was announced
in mid-September, a few weeks after the deadly blast. EPA officials found repeated
violations of five different environmental laws meant to limit air and water pollution,
and protect the public from the dangers of hazardous chemical leaks and spills. The
settlement covers a series of inspections that took place while Bayer was negotiating to
take over the Institute facility from Aventis CropScience.
Source: http://sundaygazettemail.com/News/200902272159
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Nuclear Reactors, Materials, and Waste Sector
7. February 27, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission – (Texas) NRC issues
confirmatory order to Schlumberger Technology Corp. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission has issued a confirmatory order to Schlumberger Technology Corp. of
Sugar Land, Texas, to take corrective actions following an incident involving a lost
gauge containing radioactive material. Schlumberger has agreed to the terms of the
confirmatory order that requires it to develop an enhanced accountability and security
program for radioactive materials, conducting additional management reviews of the
company’s radiation safety program and paying a $3,250 civil penalty. The terms of the
confirmatory order were agreed to following alternative dispute resolution, which uses a
neutral mediator with no decision-making authority to assist the NRC and its licensees
in resolving differences regarding enforcement actions.
Source: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2009/09-003iv.html
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Defense Industrial Base Sector
8. March 2, The Register – (Florida) NASA delays Kepler launch for rocket checks.
NASA has moved back the launch of one of the most eagerly-anticipated spacecraft for
some time, in order to check out concerns regarding its launch rocket. The Kepler
telescope, expected by many to discover evidence of habitable worlds orbiting other
stars, will wait until March 6 while engineers re-examine elements of its launcher.
NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory CO2-measuring sat crashed into the ocean off
Alaska last week after the payload fairing on its Taurus XL rocket failed to separate as
planned. Kepler will use a Delta II launcher rather than a Taurus, but the two rockets
have certain parts in common. It is these which have caused concerns. Engineers are
reviewing all common hardware between the Delta II rocket carrying the Kepler
telescope and the Taurus XL launch vehicle. Kepler, once in orbit, will survey 100,000
stars to see if they have planets orbiting in their “habitable zones” — the spaces around
them where a planet could have liquid water on its surface.
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/02/nasa_kepler_launch_delay/
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Banking and Finance Sector
9. March 2, Orlando Business Journal – (National) FDIC to levy special assessment on
banks. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) on February 27 added a one-time
special assessment of 20 cents on every $100 of insured deposits so it can quickly
restore reserves to its deposit insurance fund. It will be paid by all institutions holding
insured deposits, and that usually means the increase will be passed through to
depositors in the form of decreased interest yield on deposits. The special charge is
expected to bolster the deposit fund by $15 billion this year. The interim rule also allows
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FDIC to add an additional 10 basis points special premium if the insurance fund’s
reserves continue to decline. The increase of the 20 basis points will be assessed in the
second quarter and collected in the third quarter.
Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/stories/2009/03/02/daily2.html
10. March 1, Bloomberg – (National) AIG may get $30 billion in additional U.S. capital.
American International Group Inc., the insurer deemed too important to fail, may get a
commitment for as much as $30 billion in new government capital after a record
quarterly loss, said two people familiar with the matter. The insurer may also be allowed
to make lower payments on government loans, said the people, who declined to be
identified because there was no public announcement. New York-based AIG may forfeit
part of stakes in its two largest non-U.S. life insurance divisions to lower the firm’s debt,
the people said. AIG, first saved from collapse in September with a package that grew to
$150 billion, had to restructure its bailout after failing to sell enough units to repay the
United States. Firms including banks relied on AIG to back more than $300 billion of
assets through derivative contracts as of September 30, making the insurer a
“systematically significant failing institution” that has to be propped up, according to the
Treasury.
Source:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a9tDCRpMNHkI&refer=ho
me
11. February 27, Alibaba.com – (National) U.S. bank regulator expands debt guarantee
program. A top U.S. bank regulator voted on February 27 to expand its federal
guarantee program to include banks’ mandatory convertible debt. The Federal Deposit
Insurance Corp. (FDIC) voted to make a “very narrow targeted improvement” to its
Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (TLGP). The FDIC established the voluntary
guarantee program in October 2008. It provides a government guarantee on certain
senior unsecured debt and on banks’ transaction deposit accounts. The program was
created to boost confidence in the banking industry and reduce the risk of bank runs.
FDIC officials said banks have been able to improve their access to funding through the
program. At the end of 2008, 64 financial firms had $224 billion in outstanding debt
covered by the FDIC facility. The TLGP originally precluded any “convertible debt.”
The FDIC said on February 27 that it wants to give eligible banks more flexibility to
obtain funding from investors with longer-term investment horizons. The agency also
said it hopes the expansion will reduce the concentration of FDIC guaranteed debt
maturing in mid-2012.
Source: http://news.alibaba.com/article/detail/markets/100059743-1-update-1-us-bankregulator-expands.html
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Transportation Sector
12. March 2, Agence France-Presse – (National) Massive snowstorm hits U.S. East
Coast. Late season snow and high winds punched through the eastern United States on
Monday, snapping power lines and snarling air and road traffic. More than one foot of
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snow fell in parts of the northeastern states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New
Hampshire, the National Weather Service said, as the storm swept toward Canada after
paralyzing traffic in southern states during the weekend. In New York, an army of
workers manning 1,500 snowplows, with hundreds of salt spreaders, fought to keep the
streets clear. In the usually temperate south, the storm stunned southerners, provoking a
rash of traffic accidents, huge jams along the freeways, and hundreds of flight
cancellations. At 2 p.m. on Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration reported
average delays of more than 1 hour to Newark International; about 2 hours, 30 minutes
to New York-La Guardia; and about 2 hours to New York-Kennedy airports. Flights to
Philadelphia were delayed an average of 2 hours, it said. There were also significant
delays to Chicago and San Francisco.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090302/ts_alt_afp/usweatherstorm
See also:
http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/stories/2009/03/02/atlanta_snow_weather_ai
rport.html
13. February 28, Sacramento Bee – (California) Rio Linda plane crash kills reserve
deputy, mechanic. A Sacramento County Sheriff’s reserve deputy is one of the two
people who died Saturday in the crash of a small plane at Roy Hayer Memorial
Speedway behind the Rio Linda Airport, according to department officials. Sacramento
Metropolitan Fire arrived on the scene around 9 a.m., shortly after the crash. Both
occupants of the plane were declared dead on the scene. The cause of the crash, now
being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration, is not yet clear.
Source:http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/1661259.html
14. February 28, Bloomberg – (California) Conductor in L.A. train crash said to fail
drug test. The conductor of a Union Pacific Corp. locomotive tested positive for a
controlled substance after a crash with a Los Angeles commuter train that killed 25
people last year, two individuals familiar with a U.S. investigation said. The conductor
also was sending text messages before the head-on collision, said the people, who
declined to be identified because evidence in the probe will not be made public until
March 3. The engineer of the Metrolink commuter carrier that struck the freight train
was previously found to be text- messaging before the crash, according to the National
Transportation Safety Board. The Metrolink engineer died in the crash. The board said
last year that he failed to stop at a signal and sent a message on his mobile phone as late
as 22 seconds before his train collided with the freight carrier without slowing. The
freight train’s crew survived. The conductor on the Union Pacific train, who has not
been publicly identified, ranked behind the engineer, who had primary responsibility for
operating the controls.
Source:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=akDlGPIu4oKo&refer=us
15. February 28, KESQ 3 Palm Springs – (California) Small plane crash at Palm Springs
International Airport. A pilot and passenger are safe after a small plane crash at Palm
Springs International Airport runway on Saturday afternoon. The Palm Springs Fire
Department reports that a small plane crashed while landing. When crews arrived, they
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found an experimental single engine plane off the runway with its nose in the ground.
There were no fire or fuel leaks from the plane. No one was hurt. The runway was shut
down until NTSB was notified. Palm Springs Fire says the cause of the crash was due to
pilot error.
Source: http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=9924749&nav=9qrxVLE0
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Postal and Shipping Sector
Nothing to report
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Agriculture and Food Sector
16. March 2, McClatchy Newspapers – (International) Chavez sends troops to plants.
Government troops will occupy Venezuela’s biggest rice-processing plant March 2, the
Venezuelan president announced March 1, as the socialist leader expanded his
crackdown on private companies that evade government price caps. The Venezuelan
president sent soldiers to occupy their first rice-processing plant on February 28, a
facility in central Venezuela owned by Grupo Polar, the country’s largest food producer.
The president said, “I’m here to safeguard the public and follow the constitution.” The
president’s original order called for troops to occupy all rice mills, but they have yet to
enter a plant owned by Cargill Inc., the U.S. multinational company. Doing so likely
would draw a sharp protest from the U.S. Presidential Administration.
Source: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/20090302_In_the_World.html
17. March 1, Atlanta Journal-Constitution – (Georgia) Grocery store food bars not
monitored like restaurants. Grocery store shoppers attracted to the increasingly
popular salad bars and steam tables of ready-to-eat foods have a more difficult time than
restaurant patrons in determining whether the food is safe or the facilities meet sanitary
standards. That is because Georgia uses separate agencies to inspect them, and those
agencies have different public reporting requirements. The state Agriculture Department
inspects grocery stores. But it does not issue points or grades, and stores do not have to
post their most recent report. Agriculture Department inspectors do their work much the
same way local health departments check up on restaurants, using basically the same
form. Food safety advocates question whether it is a good idea to have different
approaches to measuring the same standards. Restaurant and grocery store inspectors are
looking for many of the same food safety problems during their visits. But there are
several differences. Agriculture Department employees, for example, must inspect entire
grocery stores complete with delis, salad bars and bakeries, while examining the shelves
for out-of-date food. They even check the store’s scales and scanners for accuracy, so
their inspections can be more complex and time-consuming than restaurant inspections.
Source:
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2009/03/01/food_bar_inspections.html
-7-
18. February 27, U.S. Food and Drug Administration – (Wisconsin) Marron Foods recalls
instant non fat dry milk boxes that may contain foreign material. Marron Foods, a
Durand, Wisconsin company, is voluntarily recalling approximately 140 cases of nonfat
dry milk that may contain a piece of metal that came off the packaging equipment which
was discovered as part of regular maintenance. The product was distributed in Safeway
Food stores nationally. There have been no reported injuries.
Source: http://www.fda.gov/oc/po/firmrecalls/marron02_09.html
19. February 27, U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service – (Washington) Washington
firm recalls frozen ground chicken products that may contain foreign materials.
Lucy’s Enterprises, Inc., a Kent, Washington establishment, is recalling approximately
13,776 pounds of frozen, ground chicken products that may contain foreign materials,
the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced
Friday. Sixteen-ounce packages of “Trader Joe’s, Chile Lime Chicken Burgers,” with
the date code “3158” embossed on the side of the box, are subject to recall. Each
package contains four chicken burgers. The problem was discovered after the company
received consumer complaints about finding pieces of plastic and bone material in the
product. FSIS has not received any consumer complaints or reports of injury at this time.
Source: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/Recall_008_2009_Release/index.asp
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Water Sector
20. March 1, Associated Press – (Colorado) State: No cause for alarm from Carbondale
spill. State health officials say a sewage spill in the Roaring Fork River last month is not
a cause for alarm. The Carbondale sewage treatment plant dumped partially treated
sewage into the river February 22, and it was reported to the state health department the
next day, according to a district engineer. The town utility director says his crew fixed a
failed pump, which caused the spill, within about an hour of the accident. He did not
know how much sludge made it into the river. He says the town is working on plans to
upgrade the plant so that when systems fail, there is a backup to prevent spills.
Source: http://www.kjct8.com/Global/story.asp?S=9925878
21. February 28, Reuters – (California) California declares drought emergency. The
governor of California on Friday declared a state emergency due to drought and said he
would consider mandatory water rationing in the face of nearly $3 billion in economic
losses from below-normal rainfall this year. The governor, eager to build controversial
dams as well as more widely backed water recycling programs, called on cities to cut
back water use or face the first ever mandatory state restrictions as soon as the end of
the month. He called on urban water users to cut consumption by 20 percent and state
agencies to implement a water reduction plan. Meanwhile, the state of emergency will
let planners fast-track some infrastructure building. Legislators have also revived a $10
billion bond package to build new dams, fund conservation programs, and build plants
to recycle waste water and recharge aquifers. The state water department will report on
conservation progress by the end of March, and if the situation has not sufficiently
improved, water rationing and mandatory cuts in water use could be instituted, the
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governor said.
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE51Q5XC20090228
22. February 27, Daily News of Newburyport – (Massachusetts) Neighbors raise stink
about sewer plant odors. More than 100 people in Newburyport have signed a petition
asking selectmen to terminate the experimental project at the town’s sewer plant because
it is fouling the air. On behalf of the 117 petitioners, a resident told selectmen he has
lived at his home for 15 years and was never victimized by a smell from the nearby
wastewater treatment plant until PMC BioTec Company installed the new system. PMC
BioTec’s program uses microbiotic organisms to consume sludge. The town originally
got involved with PMC BioTec to save money; the sludge-eating organisms reduced the
amount of sludge produced at the plant, which costs the town $160,000 a year to truck
away for permanent storage. He also said the chemicals used to control the odor are not
working and, to complicate the matter, are hazardous. “The chemicals are explosive,
according to the fire department,” he said. “And they’re stored improperly. It’s like a
bomb. They’re not ventilated, not in concrete. Homeland Security was called in. After
Homeland Security came down and learned how much chemicals they were using, they
made (sewer personnel) cut back.”
Source: http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/3077131
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Public Health and Healthcare Sector
23. March 2, Atlanta Journal-Constitution – (Georgia) Floors likely to reopen at Grady
today. Grady Memorial Hospital expected to reopen some areas Monday that were
contaminated with Legionnaires’ disease, while implementing $700,000 in measures to
prevent another outbreak, hospital officials said. Hospital officials said they could not
definitively determine whether the four patients with the disease acquired it in the
hospital. But widespread testing pinpointed high concentrations of Legionella bacteria in
the patient areas of the 11th and 12th floors of the A tower, where those patients were
staying, the hospital spokesman said. Those patients have been successfully treated with
antibiotics and have been discharged.
Source: http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2009/03/02/gradyill0302.html
24. March 1, Reuters – (International) Experts fight H5N1 bird flu using smallpox
vaccine. Scientists in Hong Kong and the United States have developed an experimental
H5N1 bird flu vaccine for people by piggybacking it on the well-tested and highly
successful smallpox vaccine. Initial tests on mice showed the vaccine to be highly
effective, they told a news conference in Hong Kong on Sunday. A microbiologist and
bird flu expert at the University of Hong Kong was referring to Sanofi-Aventis’s H5N1
bird flu vaccine for humans, which has been approved for use in the United States. In an
article published in the current Journal of Immunology, the experts from Hong Kong
and the U.S. National Institutes of Health described how they inserted five key
components of the H5N1 virus into the smallpox vaccine. The vaccine uses a Vietnam
strain of the H5N1 virus and appeared to be broadly protective. Mice which were
inoculated with it successfully fought off an Indonesian strain of H5N1, according to the
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scientists. The smallpox vaccine is very cheap, has a long shelf-life of several years, and
does not require highly sophisticated laboratories, making it easier for poorer countries
to produce. “Smallpox production capacity has gone down but many countries have the
technology and the expertise to do it, and if necessary, it can be very quickly scaled up,”
said the microbiologist. “But for other strategies (of producing H5N1 vaccines), it is not
possible to rapidly set up manufacturing plants all over the world as they require very
specialized plants.” However, it will take at least a few more years before the vaccine
would be ready for the market.
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/africaCrisis/idUSHKG196430
25. March 1, Reuters – (International) Two-year-old boy becomes Egypt’s 56th bird flu
case. A two-year-old Egyptian boy has contracted the bird flu virus and is in critical
condition, the state-run news agency quoted the health ministry as saying on Sunday,
becoming the 56th case in the Arab country. The Middle East News Agency quoted the
assistant health minister as saying the boy, from the province of el-Fayoum in central
Egypt, showed symptoms on Wednesday after coming into contact with dead birds. He
was administered the antiviral drug Tamiflu and remains in critical condition on an
artificial ventilator at a hospital in Cairo, according to the agency. Egypt is one of the
only countries affected by bird flu that does not offer compensation for farmers when
poultry is destroyed, which many experts say is the best way to ensure rapid detection of
new outbreaks.
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/americasCrisis/idUSL1668497
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Government Facilities Sector
26. February 28, WPXI 11 Pittsburgh – (National) Marine 1 blueprints found on filesharing network. A Cranberry, Pennsylvania company that monitors peer-to-peer filesharing networks discovered what it said to be a potentially serious security breach
involving the U.S. President’s helicopter. Tiversa employees found engineering and
communications information about Marine One at an IP address in Tehran, Iran. “We
found a file containing entire blueprints and avionics package for Marine One, which is
the president’s helicopter,” said the CEO of Tiversa. The company was able to trace the
file back to its original source. “What appears to be a defense contractor in Bethesda,
Md., had a file sharing program on one of their systems that also contained highly
sensitive blueprints for Marine One,” the CEO said. Tiversa also found sensitive
financial information about the cost of the helicopter on that same computer. The CEO
said someone from the company most likely downloaded a file-sharing program,
typically used to exchange music, not realizing the potential problems. “When
downloading one of these file-sharing programs, you are effectively allowing others
around the world to access your hard drive,” said the Tiversa CEO. The CEO has
notified the government immediately and said appropriate steps are being taken. “They
are working through a process to maintain the security of the president,” the CEO said.
Iran is not the only country that appears to be accessing this type of information through
file-sharing programs. “We’ve noticed it out of Pakistan, Yemen, Qatar, and China.
They are actively searching for information that is disclosed in this fashion because it is
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a great source of intelligence,” added the Tiversa CEO.
Source: http://www.wpxi.com/news/18818589/detail.html
27. February 28, WXXA 23 Albany – (New York) Suspicious substance forces East
Greenbush Town Hall evacuation. On February 27 the East Greenbush Town Hall had
to be evacuated because of a suspicious powder found in an office. It all began around
12:30 when one of the workers in the town court office opened an envelope and light
brown powder spilled onto her lap and computer. Then she and her co-workers jumped
into action. The women got the word out around East Greenbush Town Hall, getting all
30 to 35 people in the building outside. Within moments, emergency crews from around
Rensselaer County as well as Albany County were on the scene, suiting up in hazmat
gear to get ready to go in to the building to investigate just what the powder was. After
almost two hours, the powder was determined to be a corn-meal based substance. Police
are investigating to find out who sent this powder.
Source: http://www.fox23news.com/news/local/story/Suspicious-substance-forces-EastGreenbush-Town/_FGc7b-nDEe1l2WHH70hrQ.cspx
28. February 27, Associated Press – (Ohio) Test blamed for fire at Ohio Air Force base.
The U.S. Air Force says a fire broke out at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near
Dayton during a routine test that involved shooting a round into an aircraft wing. A base
spokesman said the February 27 fire occurred on a test pad at an outdoor firing range.
The spokesman says initial indications are that the round ignited the fuel inside the
wing, and the ensuing fire could not be brought under control by fire-suppression
equipment surrounding the test pad. Fire trucks were called in, and the blaze was
extinguished. The spokesman said there were no injuries.
Source: http://www.wtte28.com/template/inews_wire/wires.regional.oh/308ffd5awww.wtte28.com.shtml
29. February 27, Associated Press – (Iowa) Iowa U.S. Geological Survey Station
explosion called criminal act, reward being offered. Authorities say the explosion at a
U.S. Geological Survey Station near Bluffton in northeast Iowa last fall was the result of
a criminal act and they are offering a reward for information in the case. The explosion
at a steam gauge building along the Upper Iowa River on September 19, 2008 caused
$50,000 in damage. No one was injured but the building, which is about 12 miles
northeast of Decorah, was destroyed. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives issued a news release on February 27 saying that the agency along with the
state fire marshal’s office is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to the
arrest and conviction of the person responsible for the explosion.
Source: http://www.wqad.com/news/sns-ap-ia--buildingexplosion,0,6490569.story
30. February 27, Las Cruces Sun-News – (New Mexico) Las Cruces GOP headquarters
receives bomb threat. The headquarters for the Republican Party of Dona Ana County
received a bomb threat Wednesday evening, according to police. The office manager at
the GOP headquarters said she received a call from a man who threatened to “drop
bombs on the building” about 5 p.m. Wednesday. The same man called once before to
demand that he not receive further robo calls from the state Republican Party regarding
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proposed legislation, she said. The caller provided her with his name and telephone
number so that he could be taken off the party’s call list, she said. Police were
investigating the alleged bomb threat, said a spokesman for the Las Cruces Police
Department.
Source: http://www.lcsun-news.com/ci_11796833?source=most_emailed
[Return to top]
Emergency Services Sector
31. March 2, Capital News 9 – (New York) Podcasts offer EMT training on-the-go. Forty
percent of ambulance calls statewide involve someone over the age of 65. EMTs must
now undergo geriatric training to recertify. With 150 EMTs on staff at Monroe
Ambulance in Rochester, New York, that is no easy task. To make this training more
convenient, a doctor at the University of Rochester created a series of video podcasts
with the help of a third-year medical student. From communication to recognizing
harmful medication interactions to end-of-life issues, these lessons can be viewed from
anywhere. At Monroe, ambulance EMTs can take the course on their BlackBerry
devices.
Source: http://capitalnews9.com/content/health/134670/podcasts-offer-emt-training-onthe-go/Default.aspx
32. February 28, WWL 4 New Orleans – (Louisiana) National Guard to end city patrols.
The National Guard, which has been helping with law enforcement in the city of New
Orleans since shortly after Katrina, left town shortly after midnight on March 1. The
Guard has mostly been patrolling parts of town with few occupied homes in an effort to
free up New Orleans Police to patrol more populated and higher crime areas. The
president of the Police Association of New Orleans said that the Guard’s departure
would probably affect New Orleans East the most, an area where the Guard has been
patrolling. He said that patrols by the Guard helped the NOPD put its resources against
more pressing issues. He said that the NOPD has done a good job of bringing in new
recruits and that he hopes they will eventually beef up the number of officers to their
goal of 1,700. The Guard was initially supposed to end its time in the city at the start of
the year but state lawmakers approved funding to keep the 100 or so troops in town
through the end of February.
Source: http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/wwl022809tpguard.1207a985.html
[Return to top]
Information Technology
33. March 2, The Register – (International) Phishers automate attacks using ‘Google
hacking.’ Three in four phishing sites are hosted on compromised servers, according to
a new survey. A study of 2,486 fraudulent Web sites found that 76 percent were housed
on hacked Web servers, typically taken over after hackers identified well-known
vulnerabilities using search engine queries. Free Web hosting for fraudulent Web sites
was used in just 17.4 percent of cases. The paper, called Evil Searching: Compromise
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and Recompromise of Internet Hosts for Phishing, also found that a sizeable minority of
compromised systems were serial victims of attack. One in five (19 percent) were hit
again less than six months after a phishing-related hack attack. That is because
legitimate owners might turf out fraudsters from their systems but they often fail to fix
underlying vulnerabilities that let them in.
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/02/phishing_hackedserver_survey/
34. March 2, CNET News – (International) New antivirus software looks at behaviors,
not signatures. It could be argued that security vendors are losing the battle with online
scammers whose programs sneak onto computers and drop malicious programs, opening
the computers up to remote attacks and turning them into zombies in botnet armies. The
problem is that most computers today rely on antivirus software that blocks malware by
checking the code in a file against a database of signatures of known viruses. With
thousands of new viruses arriving each day, many of them encrypted in part or
otherwise disguised with modification, the signature lists require frequent updates and
many new viruses slip through undetected. As a result, security providers are turning
their attention to behavior-based approaches for identifying new viruses, with software
that focuses on watching for suspicious behavior, such as a program trying to write data
to an executable program. Two security companies are set to make announcements on
March 2 that follow this trend. Antivirus provider AVG is introducing AVG Identity
Protection, software that analyzes the behavior and characteristics of programs running
on a computer and shuts down activity that looks suspicious. The software is based on
technology the firm acquired when it bought identity theft specialist Sana Security in
January. “The antivirus companies are flooded with malware to add to signature
databases,” with 20,000 to 30,000 new unique samples coming out every day, said the
chief research officer at AVG. “It’s time to do something different.” Meanwhile,
Damballa is releasing its Failsafe 3.0 appliance that is designed to discover botnet
malware on computers by listening for communications between compromised systems
and command-and-control nodes controlled by attackers on the Internet.
Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-1018440783.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=News-Security
Internet Alert Dashboard
To report cyber infrastructure incidents or to request information, please contact US−CERT at soc@us−cert.gov or visit their
Website: http://www.us−cert.gov.
Information on IT information sharing and analysis can be found at the IT ISAC (Information Sharing and Analysis Center)
Website: https://www.it−isac.org/.
[Return to top]
Communications Sector
35. March 1, Cellular-News – (District of Columbia) Mobile phone improvements for
Washington D.C. underground railway. Mobile phone coverage on the Washington
metro railway is to be improved following a decision recently by the Metro’s Board.
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Four major cell phone companies — Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, AT&T, and TMobile — will build a new wireless infrastructure in the underground rail system during
the next four years. “We are looking forward to offering Metro riders the first elements
of Metro’s expanded cell phone carrier service this year. Metro will get two new
comprehensive wireless networks for free, and we will receive millions of dollars in new
revenue,” said the Metro’s assistant general manager for information technology. The
companies will design, build, operate, maintain and own a wireless network. The firms
will also build a second wireless network, which Metro will own, operate and maintain
for Metro’s own operational and public safety communications. Twenty of the busiest
underground rail stations will have expanded cell phone service by the end of this year
and the entire rail system will be equipped by 2012. Riders can now receive cell phone
service from multiple providers at above ground stations, but the current underground
wireless network only supports Verizon customers and Sprint phones that roam onto the
Verizon network.
Source: http://www.cellular-news.com/story/36279.php?source=rss
[Return to top]
Commercial Facilities Sector
36. March 1, Associated Press – (Illinois) Bomb found outside Macomb tavern. Police in
Macomb, Illinois say an active bomb was found by the beer garden of a Macomb bar
frequented by Western Illinois University students. Officers say the suspected
improvised explosive device was found late Saturday morning at the Change of Pace
Bar. Members of the state bomb squad came to Macomb with robotic equipment to
secure the bomb, which was later destroyed at a secure location. The McDonough
County Sheriff’s Department said the bomb was a small device with some shotgun
shells hooked to it and a radio attached. He said it could have been sensitive to cell
phone calls nearby.
Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-il-macombbomb,0,7528610.story
37. March 1, Springfield News-Leader – (Missouri) Chemical caused illnesses at
apartment complex. Authorities have discovered what caused four people to seek
medical attention at the Rosewood Village apartment complex in Springfield on
February 28: a two-liter bottle of ammonium chloride. An officer at the scene began
feeling a burning itch on his skin and was taken away by ambulance. Some also noticed
an odor, the Springfield Fire Department said. Another officer, along with two residents
living in the apartment complex, also reported similar symptoms. None of them were
believed to have life-threatening injuries, an assistant fire chief told the News-Leader.
Officials evacuated about a dozen people from the building and called in the hazardous
materials team. City buses were at the apartment complex so the evacuated residents
would have a place to stay warm. A battalion chief said ammonium chloride can be used
in a variety of ways, such as for soldering or even medicinal purposes. Officials found
the bottle, transferred it into a drum and sealed it up, he said.
Source: http://www.newsleader.com/article/20090301/BREAKING01/90301026/1007/NEWS01
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38. February 28, Las Vegas Sun – (Nevada) Bomb scare leads to shopping center
evacuation. An investigation into a suspicious package at a FedEx Kinko’s in
Henderson snarled traffic at the Stephanie Street-Interstate 215 interchange on February
28 for more than two hours. The package was carrying some kind of food, said
Henderson police officials on the scene. Henderson police and fire units were called to
the shopping center, which is anchored by a Gold’s Gym, about noon after employees of
the FedEx Kinko’s noticed a noise coming from a package, police said. Most of the
stores near the FedEx Kinko’s are vacant. Only a gyro shop and a dentist’s office are
nearby, and they were closed, police officials said. However, the Pit Stop Car Wash,
about 100 yards from the shipping store, closed and evacuated voluntarily, police said.
Workers waited on the opposite side of the car wash while police and fire officials sent
robots into the store to investigate the package. Metro Police K-9 units were used to
search the area. The area was declared safe, and Stephanie Street reopened about 2:30
p.m.
Source: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/feb/28/bomb-scare-leads-shoppingcenter-evacuation/
39. February 28, Chico Enterprise-Record – (California) Chico man arrested for second
time in three days for alleged bomb threats. A 28-year-old Chico man was arrested
for the second time within three days after he allegedly made a bomb threat February 27
at the Fit One Athletic Club on the Skyway in Chico, California. A Fit One receptionist
received a call at 3:06 p.m. from a man who allegedly claimed there was a bomb in the
building, police said. Chico police and fire personnel responded to the club, which
remained open during the incident. Officers found nothing suspicious after a search.
Chico police detectives arrested the man after interviewing him at his workplace,
according to a detective. Detectives also discovered that he had allegedly held a knife to
the throat of a co-worker at about the same time of the bomb threat. He was arrested on
suspicion of three incidents of making bomb threats and assault with a deadly weapon.
He was taken to Butte County Jail in Oroville where bail was set at $75,000. Police
originally arrested him on February 25 for allegedly filing false bomb reports the
weekend of February 20 at Wal-Mart and Raley’s Supermarket. His family has said he
is developmentally challenged.
Source: http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_11807080
40. February 27, KTVT 11 Dallas – (Texas) Potentially explosive situation unfolds in
Irving. A potentially explosive situation has led to the evacuation of homes and
businesses in the 1700 block of Story Road in Irving, Texas. Irving firefighters and
hazmat crews had the Plymouth Park Shopping Center sealed off since before 5 p.m. on
Friday so the threat of a fire or explosion from a gasoline spill has been reduced greatly.
But a 1,000-foot area around the strip mall remains sealed off and could be for a while.
Authorities say a work crew inside some vacant retail space made an ill-advised and
possibly illegal decision to use gasoline to remove old tiles that were glued to the floor.
Neighboring businesses smelled gas and called the fire department. Around four
firefighters found gasoline all over the floor and in cans. There was an immediate
evacuation that included a block and a half of homes north of the area. The assistant fire
chief says that even a spark would have set off an inferno. The evacuation remains in
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effect because hazmat cleanup crews are having trouble getting the gasoline to
evaporate.
Source: http://cbs11tv.com/local/Potentially.Explosive.Situation.2.946575.html
41. February 27, Reno Gazette-Journal – (Nevada) Explosive device found near El
Dorado area casino. The Red Hawk Casino was closed for a short time early February
27, when El Dorado Sheriff’s deputies found an explosive device during a traffic stop
near the casino. A woman who was stopped on a vehicle code violation on Red Hawk
Parkway in Shingle Springs was found to have a warrant for her arrest and was driving
without license, authorities said. Deputies arrested the woman and while searching her
vehicle allegedly found marijuana, methamphetamine and an improvised explosive
device. The device, known as a cricket, was a small CO2 canister altered to resemble a
pipe bomb and had “lethal capabilities.” Because of the danger of moving it, the bomb
squad destroyed the device on scene.
Source: http://www.rgj.com/article/20090227/NEWS18/90227048/1321/NEWS
[Return to top]
National Monuments & Icons Sector
Nothing to report
[Return to top]
Dams Sector
42. March 2, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – (National) Quagga mussels are clogging
Hoover Dam, colonizing lakes and rivers. While federal lawmakers continue to
squabble over how to stop overseas ships from dumping unwanted organisms into the
world’s largest freshwater system, the Great Lakes’ most vexing invasive-species
problem has gone national. The first quagga mussel west of the Continental Divide was
discovered on January 6, 2007. What took decades to unfold in the Great Lakes has
played out in a matter of months in Lake Mead. Quaggas can lay eggs six or seven times
a year in the warmer water, compared with once or twice a year in the Great Lakes. If
Lake Mead above Hoover Dam was drained, says a National Park Service biologist, it
would reveal that brown canyon walls that were mussel-free just two years ago are now
black with quaggas at densities of up to 55,000 per square meter. The pattern for most
biological invasions is a population explosion followed by a crash to stable, sustainable
levels. Thus far, the mussels show no sign of declining. Divers report them smothering
everything on the lake bottom, from beer cans to a downed B-29 bomber. The rapacious,
razor-sharp invaders are bloodying Lake Mead marina workers and are so thick in some
places they have even sunk buoys. As of February, zebra and quagga mussels turned up
in 33 bodies of water across Nevada, Arizona, California, Colorado, and Utah. A U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation researcher who works at the Hoover Dam says common sense
tells him this little speck of a critter should not be a threat to something as grand as this
concrete dam. Yet he is in a nonstop fight against a foe that is clogging the dam’s
cooling pipes. If he loses, the generators will overheat, and a power plant that can supply
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electricity to half a million homes will shut down. A spokesman for the Metropolitan
Water District of Southern California predicted pipe clearing costs in the West could
exceed $250 million annually because of the extensive waterway networks lacing this
dry side of the continent. He noted there are about 1,800 public water systems in the
West drawing on surface water to serve 47.5 million people.
Source:
http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=NATIONAL&ID=5655373
49364482271
43. March 2, Tennessean – (Tennessee) TVA scrutinizes dike at New Johnsonville plant.
TVA is investigating potential problems at a dike that surrounds an ash pond at its New
Johnsonville coal-fired plant, state officials said. The investigation is part of a wideranging review by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) on how it deals with the ash
byproduct at its 11 coal-fired plants in the aftermath of a major spill at the Kingston
power plant in East Tennessee. The ash pond in New Johnsonville — on the Tennessee
River about 75 miles west of Nashville — is different and smaller than the one in
Kingston that blew out on December 22, spreading 5.4 million tons of waste across the
community, setting off health and environmental concerns and launching a cleanup that
could cost $825 million. But in a new effort to check the stability of its ponds, TVA
notified a state advisory group overseeing a query into the Kingston spill of concerns
that needed attention in New Johnsonville.
Source: http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090302/NEWS01/903020338
44. February 28, Spokesman-Review – (Montana) Broken pipe spills oil into Clark Fork:
Avista official expects no risk to wildlife. Oil sheens were visible on parts of the Clark
Fork River on February 27, a day after a pipe broke at the Noxon Rapids Dam, spilling
about 1,250 gallons of transformer oil. Emergency response officials were working with
the dam’s operator, Avista Corp., to evaluate the situation and craft a cleanup plan. A
helicopter flew over a 20-mile stretch of the lower Clark Fork River. Pockets of oil were
spotted from the air, but no dead fish turned up. The oil is “not the goopy, heavy stuff,”
said Avista’s director of environmental affairs, but rather a highly refined mineral oil
used to cool electrical transformers. The oil tends to float on top of the water, the
director said. He said the spill should not put the river’s fish population or other wildlife
at risk. A chunk of ice apparently fell from the face of the dam, smashing the pressure
gauge on the valve of a quarter-inch pipe. The spilled oil collected in storm-water drains
that empty into a stretch of the Clark Fork River between the Noxon Rapids and Cabinet
Gorge dams. Employees shut off the value manually and alerted authorities. Officials
from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the states of Idaho and Montana, and
two counties were on the scene. Avista is operating the two dams to keep the spilled oil
in the reservoir, said a company spokeswoman. The initial cleanup will focus on using
absorbent pads to soak up the oil, with additional cleanup and evaluation to follow.
Source: http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/3079309
45. February 27, Tennessean – (Tennessee) Percy Priest Dam is classified high-risk.
Concerns about the limestone that lies under Nashville’s J. Percy Priest Dam have led
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to assign it a spot within the second-highest
- 17 -
level of risk. USACE says there is no imminent danger of the dam failing. But the
results of the agency’s recent survey of its 600 U.S. dams will lead to studies in the
coming months to determine what work is needed to prevent potential failures, as well
as determine the impact of a flood if the dam were to break. “There are no problems that
we are aware of, as we were with Center Hill Dam and Wolf Creek,” said the chief of
civil design for the Nashville branch of USACE. “There have been no changes to the
dam over its existence, but there are potential for problems to develop.” Center Hill and
Wolf Creek dams well upstream from Nashville are undergoing multimillion-dollar
repairs to plug leaks that threaten the integrity of the structures and caused fears of
catastrophic failures that would flood Nashville and other downstream communities. No
such leaks have been found at Percy Priest. The problem with all three dams is their
limestone foundations, which are subject to erosion.
Source:
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090227/NEWS02/902270369/1006/NEWS01
[Return to top]
DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report Contact Information
DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Reports − The DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report is a
daily [Monday through Friday] summary of open−source published information concerning significant critical
infrastructure issues. The DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report is archived for ten days on the Department of
Homeland Security Website: http://www.dhs.gov/iaipdailyreport
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Contact DHS
To report physical infrastructure incidents or to request information, please contact the National Infrastructure
Coordinating Center at nicc@dhs.gov or (202) 282−9201.
To report cyber infrastructure incidents or to request information, please contact US−CERT at soc@us−cert.gov or visit their
Web page at www.us−cert.gov.
Department of Homeland Security Disclaimer
The DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report is a non−commercial publication intended to educate and inform
personnel engaged in infrastructure protection. Further reproduction or redistribution is subject to original copyright
restrictions. DHS provides no warranty of ownership of the copyright, or accuracy with respect to the original source material.
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